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DON BRENNAN, QMI Agency

OTTAWA - Observers of the proceedings at Sensplex early Saturday morning noted that things are already looking up for Filip Kuba.

He survived the first 10 minutes of training camp.

“I already heard it from one guy,” the team’s gentle giant would say — while glancing over his shoulder and chuckling — when yours truly shared the joke with him a couple of hours later. “I don’t even think about last year. I don’t want to. We have a new training camp ahead of us. I’m just going to be positive and try to go through it. Just get ready for the season.”

Kuba, of course, had the same plan 12 months ago. He was coming off a long and productive summer in terrific shape. He was determined to bounce back strong from a 2009-10 season that saw him miss time with a groin injury before being cut short by a back problem that required surgery. He was going to be one of the Senators’ top defenceman again.

And then, 10 minutes into the first practice of camp, he stepped in a rut and broke his right leg.

If that was his low-light of the season, it wasn’t by much.

“It wasn’t great,” Kuba, who was out until mid-November, said of the bad break. “Took me a month, maybe more (upon return) to get myself up to the speed of the game and get my confidence back.

“I felt good at the end of the year. Even when I came back I felt strong, but I didn’t have the foot speed, that little explosiveness you have to work on. I thought I was ready, when I came back, and in the earlier stages it was okay, but then I found I was a little bit behind.

“We worked on it down the stretch, but December and January weren’t great months last season for anybody. That’s where we fell behind.”

Kuba’s plunge was deep. He wound up with just two goals and 14 assists in 64 games, despite plenty of ice time and power-play opportunities. Only five players in the league had a worse plus-minus mark than his minus-26. Unfortunately for the Senators, teammates Erik Karlsson (minus-30) and Chris Phillips (with an NHL worst minus-35) were two of them.

Now, the 34-year-old Kuba is entering the final season of his contract, with everyone wondering if he can ever again become the player he was with the Senators in 2008-09, when he had 40 points, or the guy he was with the Lightning in 2006-07, when he scored 15 goals.

Drastically improving his plus-minus, which in 11 previous seasons was never worse than minus-9, would be nice, too.

“He knows it’s a new year and he knows there’s a new coach here,” said Paul MacLean, the new coach, when asked about pre-camp discussions he’s had with the 6-foot-4, 230-lb. Czech. “I just basically tell him, ‘you’re a good player, I want you to be a good player and I expect you to be a good player. Come here every day and work to get a little bit better like the rest of us.’ ”

If Kuba can achieve that, he’ll become a former Senator prior to the trade deadline. It’s unimaginable that GM Bryan Murray would even consider bringing him back next season, no matter what he does, and anything Kuba could fetch in a deal would be a bonus.

For after the season he had, with the $3.7-million salary he carries, Murray couldn’t give him away.

“Obviously, I want to be better than last year,” said Kuba. “Just improve from that. Every time I play I want to be a big part of the team, to help in every situation on the ice. I feel better when I play more. My confidence and everything is higher.”